Saturday, November 29, 2014

A second look

Bereh beach, beautiful but largely deserted

My first impression of Freetown was of life going on as
normal but spend a few weeks here, talk to some locals and you realise life is
anything but normal. To begin with the impact on the economy is huge. Some say
the Sierra Leonian beaches are the best in the world, they are certainly
spectacular but currently they are deserted as the tourist industry has
collapsed. One of our drivers has seen his own taxi business implode and he now
relies on working for the NGO to feed his children. Perhaps when this is all
over a small silver lining will be that many new people have seen the country
and would love to come back and visit.

Since May all schools, colleges and universities have been
closed including the nursing college and medical school. Mass gatherings are
outlawed so the football stadium lies empty although curiously church
gatherings seem to be except. The bars along the beach are usually teeming with
people and alive with loud music until the early hours but now they are almost
silent. Just a few people prop up the bar with the quietest of sound systems
playing, in truth they are supposed to be closed altogether. Even the public
transport has changed; in Freetown cars are used as shared taxis to run along
pre-determined routes. Normally there might be two in the front and another
four in the back. To prevent too much body contact they are now restricted to
one in the front and two in the back. Roadblocks are common and the rules
strictly enforced.

At one point I wondered whether there might be perverse
incentives for some people to keep the Ebola epidemic going, what with all the
extra NGO’s floating around town hiring local staff. Nothing could be further
from the truth. There are in fact far fewer NGO’s here than normal because all
those not working on Ebola have understandably upped and left. It is true that
some staff are being paid a ‘risk allowance’ but no-one I have spoken to values
this above having their country back. You often hear people saying “after Ebola
it will do this and that”, there seems to be an assumption that this will all
be over sometimes early next year. Looking at the statistics I think we might
still be running an isolation unit a year from now.